Despite the trillion hours of work I’ve put into this project in R&D, I have yet to post about it. But today. Today the gas company sent someone over to take a look at the project and okayed it. Earlier this week the municipal Planning & Development office okayed it. The due diligence ended today. The research is done. The oodles of scale drawings are complete. It’s time to dig.
The design started as a grill. Ended up as a 48″ Rumford-esque chimneyed fireplace with a 2′ deep cooking hearth for embers. The 32×36″ barrel-dome oven was soon added. The end posts are to support a pergola, and will conveniently act as supports for concrete countertops. To add to the drama, the entire project will be largely built with recycled/reclaimed/reused masonry – partly out of frugality but largely out of a desire to build something grand out of others’ discards.
It’s no secret I feel strongly about cooking over a fire, so building what one city planner called the ‘grand-daddy’ of wood burning appliances is not surprisingly quite a joy. I will share the joy as the job moves forward.
bye bye back yard!
More like: hello back yard!
Would love to come see this happen in action. Sounds amazing!
…and I thought my husband was the only guy around that hatched big crazy (to some) ideas – this one looks pretty great!
what a great idea! city planners probably see A LOT of ideas pass their desk – what a compliment to hear you are building the "grand-daddy". have you planned your first meal to cook in it yet?
Chris – I'd be happy to have you by. Especially to give the oven a go when it's ready!
Court – glad to hear I'm not alone. :)
Erika – I was pleased to hear it from them for that very reason. No first meal planned yet. I suppose I'm most excited to be able to roast/bake in the summer, esp breads and pizzas.
[...] there I have it. A little tide-me-over oven setup for the hot days of summer, until my large unit [yes, I used those words] gets built. Next time, I'm going to bake a few pizzas back to back… [...]
[...] I still intend on breaking ground on my wood fired oven project one of these days, this setup certainly made me pause to consider the low-cost, easy access, [...]
Thank you for your inspiration!
just noticed this unit while browsing your site. Did it ever come to fruition?
Looks like a serious outdoor oven.
Really put my napoleon grill to shame and makes me envious.
Amy – you’re welcome!
Jeff – not yet built. Re-roofed our garage and re-ducted our house this summer = decided to postpone. It’ll happen eventually.
[...] of you might remember this. 2-3 years ago, I came up with the mad idea of building a huge-assed [17+' wide] masonry wall of [...]